AGE
Aristotle, in his "Rhetoric," devotes three chapters to the habits and passions of men at different periods of life. A practical difficulty in the treatment of such a subject is the impossibility of fixing with exactness the lines of demarcation between the different periods. Life is not a chain formed of separate links, but a stream which flows on without a break of its contin¬uity. A difficulty equally great is the wide diversity of personal temperament. Dividing life into Youth, Old Age, and Middle Age, Aristotle enumerates the distinctive qualities of each. 1. Youth. (1) Passionate.—The young are prompted by strong desires, and are ready to dare all for their grati¬fication. Their fresh and vigorous life is impatient of restraint, prone to change, and fastidious as to the objects of desire. Their desires though strong are in¬constant, like the hunger and thirst of the sick. They follow impulse rather than reason. Anger and pride are dominant motives, and ambition leads them to deeds of rashness, and spurs them with the desire of victory rather than of gain, for they have known little of want. (2) Sanguine.—They usually hope for the best, from having had few disappointments, and believe in the good, from having had little expenence with depravity. They are credulous from their instinctive love of truth, and from having seldom been subject to serious deception. They expect much of the future, from never having known repulse. They live in hope because they cannot dwell much in memory. Hence they are subject to impositions from their extravagant expectations. (8) 8pirlted.—They are spirited, for they have not yet been humbled by defeat, and have not known pressing circumstances. They, therefore, think more of honor than of expediency, for they are governed by the impulses of the heart rather than by the calcula¬tions of the brain. (4) EladaL—Their confidence in men and their ex¬uberance of spirit lead them to companionship, and they delight in the amenities of social intercourse. They choose their companions from personal affinity, not from social expediency. (5) misomevom—In their transgressions they err on the side of mischief rather than of malice. Their actions are often wanton, but seldom intention¬ally injurious. Repentance is easy, as the erior does not proceed from established principles of action. 2. Old Age. (1) oaioniating.—In almost every pat-dm:der, the old are the reverse of the young. Passion has lost its power, and calculation has become the rule of life. Caution marks every step. Impulse has given way to reason. (2) Despouding.—They are slow to assert anything, or to receive any new doctrine, always qualifying with "perhaps" or "possibly." They are suspicions of general statements, since experience has shown many exceptions to general rules. They distrudt men and theories on the same ground. They are apprehensive a danger and difficulty from long experience of their prevalence and unexpected approach. They live in memory more than in hope. (3) limbic—Disappointment and deception have generally lowered their estimate of the world. The loss of power tends to lower their former ideas of life. They rely more upon careful calculation and the policy of expediency than upon the certain supremacy of right and the victory of honor. (4) Gentle.—If the old are injurious it is not from mischief, but from calculation. Yet they are seldom injurious either in word or deed, having learned to subordinate impulse to reason, and having perceived the uselessness of retaliation. 3. Middle Age. (1) Ifixlerate.—The prime of life presents the golden mean between the two extremes of mental character already sketched. Moderation, mental bal¬ance, deliberation joined with action are the qualities of man at the middle period of life. Passion has been modified by reason, without having deprived him of enthusiasm and interest in the temporary ends of ex¬istence. Honor and expediency cooperate. Caution and daring are blended. Neither the extravagance of youth nor the parsimony of old age is predominant. (2) Power.—The middle period in life is that in which the capacity and desire for power are at their height. The diffidence of youth has departed, and the weakness of old age has not supervened. Exercise of the faculties has imparted vigor and precision to their operations, and over-use has not impaired their activity. Although subject to great individual modification, these differences of disposition should be known and remembered by the rhetorician, as they affect the reception of new ideas. Category:Character